Tag Archives: Rf

It didn’t seem that long ago that a five-game winning streak briefly showed the Mets with signs of life in their increasingly remote chances of playing October baseball.

Let’s face it, ain’t happening. Also not happening is Gary Sheffield. He won’t start tonight, either, but is available as a pinch hitter like last night.

The Mets go into tonight’s game at Arizona losers of nine of their last 12 games. With the offense on life-support, the rotation has responded with a 5.57 ERA in that span.

At one time, June 7 after throwing seven shutout innings against Washington, was 5-1. He takes a 7-6 record and 5.08 to the mound tonight.

Last Thursday, Hernandez gave up seven runs in five innings in losing at San Diego. He has given up seven runs or more in three of his last six outings. Lifetime, Hernandez is 10-6 with a 3.51 ERA against the Diamondbacks, but his history over the past two months is a greater measure of what to expect.

The Mets conclude their four-game series tonight against Arizona with the pitching disadvantage of Nelson Figueroa against Dan Haren. I remember at one winter meetings, I believe it was Orlando, when I tracked down rumor after rumor of Haren coming to the Mets.

Of course, he never did.

Figueroa has had some decent moments with the Mets, but the truth is not nearly enough to warrant what all the fuss is about. He’s had plenty of chances to go elsewhere, but nobody was knocking at his door.

After winning five straight, the Mets are on the verge of losing four of their next five games if they lose tonight.

Why can’t it rain when Oliver Perez pitches? Today’s game will be delayed by rain.

First things first, Perez is not inconsistent. Inconsistent means he mixes in a good game every once in awhile. It’s not that way. He’s consistent in that you know he’ll walk at least five and give up five or so runs. Yeah, that will do it.

It was a bad signing. The worst. But, that’s no longer news. I’m thinking next year they have to consider him in the bullpen role. He couldn’t do any worse because he would pitch less innings.

There’s injury news today. Jose Reyes is resting again. He’s not close to being ready. Carlos Beltran, meanwhile, took some batting practice. He’s closer, but has no date on him. Gary Sheffield has been activated from the disabled list, but isn’t in the line-up today against Arizona’s Jon Garland. JJ Putz hopes to throw Wednesday.

Here’s the line-up for the 50-53 Mets behind Pelfrey, that is, if they play:

I really don’t want to watch Oliver Perez tonight. Yeah, once I say that he’s liable to pitch lights out, but he’s also able to be annoyingly frustrating to watch. How Dan Warthen and Jerry Manuel, not to mention his teammates, bear it, I’ll never know.

The Mets need a big game from Perez because they can’t afford much more losing. They threw away last night’s game, literally, with Sean Green’s wild pitch.

Not surprisingly, Mets GM Omar Minaya was unable to pull off a trade by this afternoon’s deadline for a multitude of reasons.

The Mets had to balance out their place in the standings – six games behind in the wild card – and protecting their farm system. There was also the fact not one of the big names traded today (Jake Peavy, Nick Johnson or Victor Martinez) would compensate for all the injured players on the DL.

“We were just not able to get it done,’’ Minaya said. “We had some opportunities to do some things, but, in the end, I felt that what teams were asking for we couldn’t find a match.

“Unless it is someone we were going to hold on to beyond one year, we’re going to hold on to as many prospects as we can.’’

Meanwhile, the Mets start a four-game series against the Diamondbacks tonight. The tarp is on the field but the Mets are hoping to get the game in. However, it won’t start before 8 p.m.,